Narrative study uncovers challenges and strategies in cultivating a caring climate within athletic coaching, highlighting practical steps to establish supportive environments.
Necessitated by sustained evidence of abuse and inappropriate coaching practices, an ethic of care has been promoted as a promising approach to sport coaching. Providing care in sport contexts is difficult however, because caring is often labour intensive and many individuals including coaches themselves may need care. Thus the conditions of some sport coaching contexts may not be conducive to care. Currently, there are few evidence-based examples of how to develop the conditions that facilitate care in coaching contexts. Accordingly, this study reports on a Head Coach’s attempts to develop a “caring culture” using the Continuous Change Model for Caring Cultures (CCMCC). Utilising a structural narrative analysis of stories gathered across a season, findings reveal challenges including limited capacities and capabilities to care, and the need to align care with wider norms. The narrative also highlights the value of publicly rewarding care and how other characters beyond the Head Coach attempted to provide care in different scenes. These findings provide the first account of utilising the Continuous Change Model for Caring Cultures, including stories and analysis that may support others to develop the conditions to support caring relationships.
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Cronin et al. (2026) studied this question.
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